


on this cold december night

by orphan_account



Category: The Mindy Project
Genre: F/M, angsttttt
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-12-07
Updated: 2013-12-07
Packaged: 2018-01-03 21:14:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 445
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1073113
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Spoilers for most recent ep. My first attempt at writing TMP fic, as well as Danny's POV.</p>
            </blockquote>





	on this cold december night

Underneath the annoying pop music, the expensive designer clothes, and the high pitch and volume of her voice, Mindy really is kind of fantastic. And Danny’s seen her with all of that stripped away, in the quiet moments, rare as they are. He’s seen her in a hospital bed without a scrap of makeup on, and at the time he wondered why his heart had actually turned to ice in his chest at the thought that she was in trouble. He’s seen her in her sweats, in his bed, the line between reality and fantasy slightly blurred around the edges, but not completely erased. And tonight, with her shoes kicked onto the floor and drinking crappy pinot from her bra through a tube, may have been the most unguarded he’d ever seen her.

He’d spent an embarrassing amount of time on that dance. He’d even spent the 99cents to download it off of iTunes, despite his brother’s amusement that nobody actually buys music nowadays, and let me show you how to be a pirate. He’d practiced for days, as the day of the party loomed closer and his confidence became more distant. Was he just going to make an idiot out of himself? Was Mindy going to realise what he was trying to tell her? But the look on her face as he’d put all of that out of his mind and danced like he actually knew what he was doing… he didn’t give a damn about his own secret santa gift. The way her eyes lit up when she recognised the song, the way she grinned at him, the way she hugged him after it was over…

He presses his forehead against the window for a moment, closing his eyes. He should have gone outside with her. Maybe it wouldn’t have ended up with them going home together, or even a kiss – although before Peter had burst in it had felt like that was where it was ultimately going. Still, maybe she just really needed some air.

He opens his eyes, glances down, and his grip on the windowsill tightens.

She’s there, though she’s probably not getting much air given how Cliff is kissing her. And just like that, Danny rethinks every single minute of the last few hours, every little shared moment, and chalks it up to two coworkers just trying to cheer one another up. That’s all they’ll ever be, and it’s best that way. Mindy needs someone like Cliff. Mindy obviously  _wants_  someone like Cliff. Despite whatever conflicted feelings Danny has about her, she knows what she wants, and it’s not him.

He wonders why he even cares so much, anyway.


End file.
